Soundtrack to a life
by PhilaMill
Summary: Collection of Dark OQ one-shots in no particular order. Imagining that Regina and Robin can listen to music in the Enchanted Forest. Each chapter is based on 1-2 songs that remind me of the characters, or that I enjoy listening to and like to think about how the characters would respond. And always looking for new song ideas if anyone has any!
1. Prologue

The first time it occurred to her was shortly after she and Robin had arrived at her castle. Stuck in one wing cleaning all day while he was out hunting it was too quiet. She thought of how much she wished Henry was there, even if all he did was sit in the corner playing video games or reading while he listened to music. That was when she realized that she had magic, and that meant she could have music.

Making a speaker out of thin air she set it on the table and waved her hand, producing some of the music Henry and Regina had listened to back in Storybrooke. Henry and Regina (and the Queen if she was honest) had different tastes in music, but over the years they had built a streaming station that worked for everyone. It was a mix of many genres (oldies to folk rock to indie pop and others, even a little country) and Regina found that listening to this music took her back to afternoons spent with Henry.

Robin returned from his hunt a few hours later and went to find Regina to discuss dinner plans. As he approached the wing where he knew she was cleaning he began to hear the sound of _-a guitar? other instruments? what were those sounds?-_ filtering down the hallway. He followed the sound and found Regina softly humming along with the music as she cleaned. He looked around for a musician and saw no one, but the sounds seemed to be emanating from a small grey metallic box that rested on a table. He listened and watched her for a few moments as the music ended, and a new song began.

"What on earth is that?" he said, filled with wonder that such a small device could emit such wonderful sounds.

Regina jumped and gasped, turning to look at him. "Robin! You scared me; I didn't hear you come in. That's just a speaker." He looked at her quizzically. "It's technology from Regina's world," she clarified. "It was a little too quiet so I thought I would play some music."

"I've never heard anything like this but I like it," he said. "Are these people playing this somewhere else right now and we can hear it? Who are they?"

She smiled, amused at how amazed he was by the speaker. "No this is a recording of a band that Henry and Regina used to listen to. If you like this there are some other bands you would probably like as well."

"I want to listen to all of them!" Robin said enthusiastically.

"Ok well probably not tonight," Regina said laughing, "but we can start listening to music if you want."

"Please," Robin said smiling and nodding decisively. Robin picked up a rag and began to help Regina clean as the two enjoyed the music together.


	2. HappyLow

AN/Disclaimer: "Happy" is the work of Pharrell Williams, and "Low" is the work on Flo Rida.

* * *

The first time she got him to dance with her was while she was listening to music in the library. She had been browsing through some old books of magic looking for a spell that would help keep the castle tidy (they seemed to spend all their time cleaning these days) when Pharrell's "Happy" came on.

She had heard the song before, but it had never resonated with her before. In the last month, however, she and Robin had settled into a comfortable routine at the castle, and she found herself feeling very content. She enjoyed spending time with him. Whether they were cooking, cleaning, walking in the woods, or just sitting and reading together, everything seemed more enjoyable when he was around and she felt like she laughed more than she ever had before in her life. Of course the tension was always there. There had been a few almost-kisses, and they were clearly attracted to one another. They both seemed hesitant to act on it, possibly because they were so happy living and spending time together in the castle, and a relationship that went wrong could easily ruin that. Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind she returned to the music and reveled in the feeling of happiness for a moment. She continued reading her book, but subtly began swaying her hips to the song. As the chorus hit she put her book down on the table in front of her and began more fully dancing in place to the song.

Robin had made his way downstairs to help her out in the library and stopped as he came into the doorway, finding her swaying and dancing faintly to an upbeat song as she read the book open on the table in front of her. Her back was to the door and she had not heard Robin, so he took a moment to enjoy the view. She was wearing one of his favorite dresses on her- a fitted red velvet piece that left nothing to the imagination- and the sway of her hips was mesmerizing.

The chorus hit again and Regina raised her hands and began clapping to the beat, turning a slow circle in place as she moved her hips to the beat. As she turned Robin came into view, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"Oh-," she said caught off-guard by her audience.

"Why hello," he said smiling at her.

"I was just looking through some books for tidying spells," she said.

"Actually it looks like you were dancing. Who knew the Evil Queen liked to dance?" Robin said, still smirking at her.

"I don't really. I was just caught up in the music."

"Understandable," he said. "That's a great song. Still I don't really like to dance and I've never been caught up in music so much that I spontaneously started."

"Well maybe you haven't heard the right song yet," she replied.

"Look, the other Robin may have enjoyed spinning women around ballrooms but that's just not my thing."

"Excuse me, but I was not spinning around in a ballroom. I don't do that either."

"You were spinning around in a library," he pointed out, and she decided she wanted to wipe that insufferable smirk off his face.

"I bet I could get you to dance," she said.

"When?" he asked.

"Right here, right now," she replied confidently.

"I will bet you anything," he replied, equally confident.

"Loser is in charge of dinner and dishes for the whole week," she said, smiling now.

"Not entirely fair, as you can just waive your hand and do both while I have to actually work. But as I'm not going to lose I will take that bet," he said confidently, putting his hand out to shake hers.

She took his hand and shook it, then used it to pull him around and switch places so that he was now leaning against the table.

"So what do you want me to do," he said.

"Just stand there," she said, and waved her arm so that the music changed to Flo Rida's "Low".

In Storybrooke there had been exactly one unsavory spot, and that was the Rabbit Hole. Regina had gone there very rarely, but remembered one night when Henry was about 7 that she had hired a sitter for the night and given in to Graham's demands for a full night for just the two of them. She had asked if they could stay in so that no one would know about their relationship, and Graham had suggested they go to the Rabbit Hole as none of the respectable townsfolk they knew would be there. Regina and Graham had holed up in a dark booth at the back of the bar for the evening, drinking and occasionally making out, and at some point late in the evening this song had come on and a woman had gotten up on a table and started dancing.

Regina had watched her sexual movements with interest; she had only seen dancing like this when flipping past music videos late at night on MTV and she had never really watched it before. But, honestly, it was hypnotizing. Regina the mayor was appalled and judgmental, but Regina the Evil Queen was fascinated. The woman had the attention of almost every man in the room (Graham's face was buried against Regina's neck at the moment, so he wasn't tuned into this particular spectacle) and she oozed power. Not one of the men could have denied her anything at that moment, and Regina _loved_ finding new ways of getting power.

Coming back to the present moment Regina lowered her gaze and stared at Robin in a predatory manner. She smirked and began gyrating to the music as the woman in the bar had, grinding her hips in a circle and spinning to face away from him as she did. When she was facing away from him she looked back over her shoulder and smiled at him, biting her lip slightly, and met his eyes, which were darkening with lust. As the lines " _low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low"_ floated out of the speaker she slowly ground her way towards the floor, straightening up butt first, then slowly rolling her top half up to follow ( _honestly, who actually dances like this?_ she thought and wondered whether Robin would possibly fall for this). She threw another look over her shoulder and found that his mouth had fallen open. She smirked as she turned to him and walked deliberately towards him, swaying her hips to the music as she did.

When she arrived in front of him she put her face close to his, turning her head as if she was going to kiss him, and ran one hand slowly down his torso. As he started to lean in she smiled and pulled back. She turned away from him and resumed her movements directly in front of him, looking at him over her shoulder but not touching him. Robin let out a deep growl and pulled her hips back against himself. He held her hips gently and began moving with her. Occasionally she ground against him, feeling the evidence of his attraction to her, and he would let out another deep growl and dig his fingers lightly into her hip. As they continued to dance one of his hands started roaming her side, sliding up to her rib cage and then back down over the curve of her hip. She moaned and pressed against him more fully, leaning her head back against his shoulder and exposing the smooth expanse of her neck to him. Robin turned his face into the crook of her neck, not kissing but simply rubbing his stubble against her as he breathed her in and they continued to dance.

As the end of the song neared Regina turned in his arms and faced him, finding her lips inches from his own. Feeling his warm breath on her face she lost track of her goal for a moment, caught up in the intense blue of his eyes darkened with lust. Finally the last notes of the song rang out and they were left in silence, their breathing the only sound in the room. They both turned their heads, moments away from lips crashing together, when she remembered how well they were doing and how scared she was to ruin this. She pulled away and Robin immediately let go of her hips.

"So… I guess you owe me dinner for a week," she said looking up at him through her lashes, embarrassed at low and hoarse quality of her voice, which was evidence of her own arousal after that performance.

Robin looked back at her, his gaze still intense. "I stand corrected," he said with a smile. "It turns out I do like dancing. And I guess I should go get started on dinner." With that he bowed at her and smirked again before making his way out of the library.

Well, she hadn't really wiped the smirk off his face, but she had a matching one of her own as she put their regular music back on and returned to her magic book.


	3. Shake it Out

All lyrics in this chapter, which I can take no credit for, come from Florence and the Machine's "Shake it Out" and are in italics.

* * *

The first time she really opened up to him about her dark past was as they sat reading by the fire one night. Florence and the Machine's "Shake it Out" had come on, and Robin had stopped reading to listen to the lyrics. He looked over to see that Regina had also stopped reading and was staring into the fire.

"What are you thinking about?" Robin asked her.

She looked up at him, caught off guard. "This song. It hits a bit close to home for me," she replied. "I mean right from the start, ' _Regrets collect like old friends here to relive your darkest moments'_ ," she quoted. "Do you ever feel that way? That all your past regrets are gathered around you to help you relive all these things that have happened that you would do differently. And every time I turn away from one there's another staring me in the face."

"How do you get away from them?" Robin asked quietly.

"For awhile I didn't. I drew them around myself, like the worst group of friends in the world. But bad as they were it still felt like they were protecting me."

"From what?"

"I don't know. From having to move on, maybe?"

"I hated it so much when people told me it was time to move on after Marian's death. As if I didn't realize that it was consuming me, as if I had any control over it," he replied.

"Exactly. Moving on and accepting seemed so much harder than holding on and resenting everyone who was involved in Daniel's death." She was silent for a moment as she stared into the flames again. "But holding onto to that resentment comes with a price; it's right there in the song. ' _Every demon wants his pound of flesh'_. And I did keep giving up parts of myself, but usually not tangible parts. My humanity, kindness, empathy, compassion... all of it was the price I paid to hold onto the past."

"But you have them back now," Robin said. "I see those parts of you coming out."

"Yes. And I'm so grateful Regina shared that with me. But it hurts. I mean the pain of Daniel has subsided somewhat, especially over the last few months," she said, realizing it was while she was with Robin that the pain of everything in her past had finally started to ebb. "But opening your heart to care about other people leaves you so open and vulnerable."

Robin simply looked at her, thinking about how he himself was also terrified of opening himself up, and how long he had spent running from it.

Regina continued. "That line ' _I am done with my graceless heart so tonight I'm going to cut it out and then restart.'_ I mean that's how it feels after love lost, right? Completely lacking in any grace. With your heart so raw and damaged like that there's no grace left, and it really feels like cutting it out and restarting is the best option to feel less. I didn't actually cut mine out, I just destroyed it. But Regina actually did try to take out her heart and bury it once, though. Not after Daniel, but after we lost Henry the first time."

"Wait, when? And what stopped her?"

"When we got stuck in the Enchanted Forest during that curse I told you about. Snow stopped her. And moments later was when she met Robin, actually. So as much as I hate to say it Snow was right. Her heart was on the way to mending, and she needed it inside of her for that."

"Do you feel like your heart is on the way to mending?" Robin asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I think so? I still feel a little scared though. I mean if the options are living without love or living in a world where you can lose love, what do you chose? ' _I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't… I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope, it's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat.'_ That's it, isn't it? You're damned either way, each one can lead to pain. So you have to go in ready to suffer, but hopeful, just like you're waiting for someone to take a shot that could take you out entirely, and you have no control over any of it."

"I mean we are damned either way, but one of those paths is a certain road to suffering and loneliness with no hope. The other, though, there's still hope that you will find people who love and accept you, right? I mean if you find a good shot," he smirked at her. She rolled her eyes.

"I guess so. I guess that's why Regina was so open and full of hope. But she also suffered so much, didn't she? When we closed off after Daniel's death we didn't really lose anyone. Well, I lost someone, a lot of people, but I killed them myself so I don't know if that counts as 'loss' in the way we've been talking about it. The kind of loss you have no control over."

"But you didn't lose anything because you didn't have it to begin with. If you think about all the potential love that was lost, all the people whom you could have loved and who could have loved you over those years, that's a pretty hefty bill isn't it?"

"I guess so," Regina said.

"And I think the singer isn't saying that you won't lose love, she's saying you go in ready to be hurt, and then you say ' _What the hell I'm going to let it happen to me'_."

"I guess I can work on that," she said.

"We'll work on it together," he said, smiling at her and returning to his book (the song was long over at this point).

Regina looked back into the fire, still thinking. She felt like she was cheating, because his arrow never missed. Trusting him, even with a shot in the dark, would be the easiest thing in the world. She smiled and returned to her book.


End file.
